Americans are eating more cheese than ever before, says Kerry Kaylegian, Penn State dairy foods research & extension associate, but in recent years Americans have developed a taste for artisanal cheeses that offer more distinctive and nuanced flavors than the standard varieties of a decade or two ago.

Location-based advertisements may pinpoint customers geographically, but often miss the target because customers may find the ads creepy and intrusive, according to an international team of researchers. To overcome this negativity, the researchers suggest advertisers invite their customers to help tailor ads they might receive.

Marijuana use in teenagers is on the rise, while cigarette and alcohol use are stable or declining, according to Penn State researchers. In particular, black teens are using more marijuana than in recent decades.

The European Union (EU) has a long history of walking up to the edge of a cliff and not falling off, Penn State Behrend professor John Gamble says. The EU has created a set of institutions that, on balance, have been enormously successful, and that should help as EU leaders continue to navigate the economic crisis in Greece.

Small business creation — a critical economic engine — is significantly hampered in areas of the country where residents carry more substantial student loan debt according to research co-authored by Brent W. Ambrose of the Penn State Smeal College of Business.

A new federal regulation will make about 5 million more workers eligible for overtime next year. Lonnie Golden, labor economist at Penn State Abington, said workers will have additional spending power and income security, and it have little impact on business investment.

A federal preschool program did more than improve educational opportunities for poor children in Mississippi during the 1960s. The program also gave a political and economic boost to the state's civil rights activists, according to a Penn State historian.

Anthony Cutler, Evan Pugh Professor of Art History, and two graduate students, Sarah Daiker and Andrea Middleton, have been chosen to present papers at the 2015 Byzantine Studies Conference in New York City, Oct. 23–25.